This is coolbert: In a previous blog entry, I have mentioned war poster art. Art that used to stimulate the target audience to hate the enemy, whoever the enemy was.

And most of the war poster art of this genre that is displayed is done by "western" artists. Showing the Germans as slavering beasts gone mad or the Japanese as sinister brutes with "foreign" appearance accentuating the eyes, the teeth, etc. Stereotypical representations that are referred to as "racist".

Please do not think, however, that this form of "racist" war poster propaganda was confined to the allied or "western" powers.

The Japanese too did some very good work in this area. Work that can only be described as "racist" too.

I have seen short movies the Japanese did that were used to infuriate their populace and the populaces of "nations" the Japanese "liberated".

One such short film clip was directed at the populace of what was at the time British ruled Malaya. The clip was done in the tradition of the "wayang kulit" [shadow play]. A popular form of entertainment in southeast Asia for millenniums. Read about the wayang kulit by clicking here. This film clip shows a "native" boy drinking milk from a coconut that has fallen to the ground. All is peaceful. Suddenly a British soldier comes upon the scene, knocks the coconut from the hands of the boy and greedily drinks from the coconut himself. The boy is obviously identifiable as a "native boy" from the hat [songkok] he is wearing. And the soldier is obviously a Britisher. This soldier has a big hooked nose usually described by Asians as being a trait of "westerners" [Vietnamese were reputed to refer to Americans as the "big nosed guy"]. And the soldier has a British style helmet on his head and is wearing the tropical battle uniform of shorts and knee high wool socks. The film ends with Japanese battleships arriving on the scene and the Englishman running away in panic.

The second short film clip shows several Japanese soldiers entering into a mess hall that was on a British army base. These Japanese soldiers are gingerly moving through the mess hall, with fixed bayonets on their rifles. They are dirty, sweaty, and anticipating action at any moment. One of the Japanese soldiers comes upon a table with an elegant setting of tea and crumpets. Evidently the British were sitting down to eat and have fled in panic once again at the approach of the battle hardened Japanese. In disgust, the Japanese soldier, after staring at the table for a long moment, then takes the butt of his rifle and smashes the table setting to pieces. This shows his disdain for the soft, weak, and cowardly "westerners".

Racism and racist thoughts and the propagation of the same are not limited to "westerners". Far from it!

coolbert.